By Natasha Lee
Staff Writer
December 5, 2007
STAMFORD - Management agreements between the city and two volunteer fire departments that would have expired yesterday were extended two weeks as city officials continue to hash out plans to restructure the city's fire service.
In June, city officials announced they would cancel the agreements as part of a plan to increase staffing and reduce overtime spending in Belltown, Glenbrook and Turn of River volunteer fire departments. City and paid fire officials criticized declining volunteer membership and poor response to emergency calls.
The agreements outline how the volunteer fire chiefs operate their firehouses and supervise the city-paid firefighters that staff their stations.
Last week, the city offered to extend parts of the contract until Dec. 21 to ensure city-paid firefighters continue to staff the departments until a plan is implemented. Otherwise, terminating the agreement would mean reassigning city-paid firefighters in volunteer stations to Stamford Fire & Rescue firehouses.
The city is negotiating a labor contract with the paid fire union and developing a plan for fire protection, Public Safety Director William Callion said.
"We're still working on a plan, and we need time to transition," Callion said.
Turn of River Fire Department declined the city's offer and filed a motion to stop termination of the agreement. Turn of River attorney Mark Kovack said the fire department and the city must agree to a termination or violate the agreement. In July, Turn of River used a similar argument to successfully prevent layoffs after it refused to sign on to the city's plan.
"The city is taking the position that it's above the law, and they can just breach the agreement at will," Kovack said.
Turn of River also plans to file a complaint with the state labor board alleging the city and paid fire union failed to include them in negotiations, Kovack said.
"The city has excluded us from that entire process," he said.
The city notified the departments of the extension by e-mail and a letter mailed Friday.
In a copy of the e-mail obtained by The Advocate, the city said the extension was to "assure uninterrupted emergency service protection" and could be "subject to possible further extension upon agreement of the parties."
Stamford's volunteer firehouses are autonomous under the city Charter but rely on city-paid firefighters and city funding to operate.
Belltown Fire Chief John Didelot said that the firehouse agreed to the extension in the interest of the department and public safety. The firehouse lost three of its nine paid firefighters in July, when the city laid them off after the department refused to accept the city's plan.
"I'm OK with this if we need time to work it out," Didelot said.
City, union and fire officials have been trying to work out a plan for six months. Mayor Dannel Malloy announced the plan after a $850,000 cut to the Office of Public Safety, Health & Welfare as a way to reduce overtime spending and increase manpower at the understaffed volunteer firehouses. City officials said overtime costs in the three districts reached $700,000 last fiscal year.
Under the plan, 21 Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters would be relocated to the volunteer firehouses, doubling the paid staffing. The plan called for canceling the management agreements and uniting the 34 city-paid firefighters in volunteer firehouses and the 272 Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters under one labor contract.
But conflicts with the volunteer fire departments led to legal battles and the layoffs of four paid firefighters. Glenbrook Fire Department was the only department to join the city's plan. Belltown rejected the plan. Ongoing litigation with Turn of River has delayed further negotiations.
Stamford Professional Fire Fighters Association President Brendan Keatley said an agreement has been reached on a tentative labor contract for all city-paid firefighters.
If approved, the contract calls for re-hiring the four firefighters laid off in July, Keatley said, and Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters would staff Glenbrook fire station, because it agreed to the plan.
Meetings will be held next week for union employees to review the contract. The union is expected to vote the following week, he said.
"I think the city and us both compromised, but I think we came out of it with something that is reasonable. I think it's going to be better for fire protection and public safety," Keatley said.
Whether city-paid firefighters will remain at the volunteer firehouses after Dec. 21 remains to be determined and is a concern for volunteer chiefs.
"It's more of a case of the unknown. The city needs to communicate to the other departments what they're going to do," Didelot said. "I'm still hoping we can find a middle ground on this."
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